Customer Reviews

This Darkness

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This Darkness is an okay direct to video movie. It's pretty good in the 1st half & manages to be entertaining, but in the 2nd half, it tries to take it too seriously & winds up falling flat on its face.
It opens up with a pretty scary vampire biting a victim scene, it's nicely done & one of the better Dracula scenes in a direct-to-video I've seen. After that, the movie begins with an investigation into suspicious deaths or attacks in a small town, which shows some gore & blood, but not enough to be really too much.
The hero starts to uncover clues here & there about what is going on, he sees strange activities at night, like bats becoming more & more commonplace, blood stains in unusual places, & a lot of noise at night for a small town. He slowly but assuredly suspects the activity of vampires is getting bad enough to warrant an investigation of some local cops, but they brush him off like he's losing his marbles.
The 2nd half is mainly padded with some weak dialogue but overall stays pretty good. The best scene is a creepy shot of Amanda Cook as a vampire attacking a victim in the shower. The pacing also becomes a little sluggish, but still remains pretty good.
The camerawork is good, as are the special effects, music, & storyline. The pacing is a bit weak at times, but is generally okay. The acting is okay, but has some weak moments to it. The dialogue at times seems a little silly & is the biggest weakspot here.

Very... so I picked this up for next-to-nothing, figuring, it's got to have _some_ redeeming features, gratuitous t&a... _something_. But, there is simply no good reason to own this DVD, unless your you and friends made this DVD on a lark, and you're actually in one of the four movies! Wanna-be Blair Witch meets goth crowd, meets weekend acting club meets poor production quality.

My friend has a habit taht's starting to annoy me. We both love Horror films and we're both great "bargain hunters". That's where his habit comes in: He picks up cheap Horror movies and 9 out of 10 times they are godawful! So it is with VAMPS. I kidded him when he brought it over "I bet the box has a busty chick with black nail polish on the cover". Sure enough, I was right!
The first flick BLOOD STAKES was awful. 5 minutes in you knew it wasn't very professional: It is shot with a handheld camera with terrible special effects, a less-than-stellar cast and some laughable costumes. I ran in and out of the room making up chores I had to do about half-way through! Truth is , I couldn't wait for the damn thing to end!
next up was VULTURE'S EYE, the story about the evil Dr Vogel. Mwahahahahaaha! This was even worse, because it had a longer running time. Around this time my friend remarked that he was expecting a lot more T & A from this box set and then right about then there was some tossed in: The T & A shots are really poorly done, they are NOT subtle at all. A scene that has a breast in it has just that: a breast. No face, no body, just a full shot of [...]. I even started to wonder aloud if the girl used a body double...cuz her face was never shown when her chest or rump was! But...whatever. A bomb vampire flick with charactors with names like "Renfield", "Mina," "Lucy" and "Van Helsing". My friend said "How can they do that? Can't they get sued" to which I said "I guess the DRACULA/ NOSFERATU stories are so old that they didn't have copyrights!", meaning I could make a soap opera tomorrow and name the charactors Renfield, lucy, Mina and Van Helsing if I wanted to!
I havent watched the other two flicks in the set (Dare I say "yet?") ABOMINATION and THE DARKNESS and I don't think I will!
My friend paid $5 for this set...and that was $5- too much!
Also beware another terrible cheapie Horror flcik called THE GHOSTS OF ANGELA WEBB. That one's even worse...if that's possible!

The movie by the other reviewer is not This Darkness, it has none of that stuff he mentions, not sure what happend here. This Darkness is complete garbage, about some college professor who's susposed to be van helsing. It looks like one of the movies you filmed yourself, with the horrible home video look. The acting is literally the worst I ever seen. Please avoid this film, i'm trying to help others avoid the mistake I made.

I'm currently halfway through the Decrepit Crypt of Nightmares 50 Movie Pack and just got around to watching This Darkness. Throughout my many hours of watching this pack of films, I can only recommend one thing: do not buy these movies individually. Some of the films are decent surprises that I've stumbled across and others are simply painful to endure. About 25 movies in, I can honestly say that the five dollars spent on the set is well worth it. It's the experience of trekking through 50 low-budget horror flicks that makes it worth your money. Again, I can not stress enough that the films are not worth their individual prices or the shipping and handling that you'll have to pay for them.

Now that my rant is over, let's focus on This Darkness. The Amazon listing does not currently have a description of the plot, so here it goes: "When world-famous genetic engineer Dr. Van Helsing discovers the secret to immortality, his world is ravaged by true-blood vampires. The Lord of the Undead makes a pact with the young doctor: 'Make a bride for me, one as perfect as I, and I shall show you wonders this world has never seen.' Shadows haunt the doctor, when a hot young student enters his lab and the line between ethics and curiosity are crossed. As bloodshed fills the halls, the battle between Good and Evil begins. Should he believe the promises of the vampire or is he creating another Anti-Christ?"

To be quite honest, I don't remember much of what is described here. I'm a diehard fan of the horror genre and keep an open mind with any low-budget horror efforts. This Darkness, however, fails on almost every level. The film is a showcase for some laughable martial arts action sequences and Dylan O'Leary's overly obnoxious and "witty" professor. O'Leary also directs the film and rarely includes a sequence that doesn't involve himself. Nearly every line that he spouts off comes across as annoying despite its attempt to be humorous. The fact that his character is on camera for basically the duration of the film is a huge negative. There are some decent ideas and short scenes that show promise, but the end product is just not worth your time.

Those of you expecting a low-budget horror gem will be sorely disappointed. Even if you can ignore the bad acting and obnoxious characters, there's little else worth watching. It's the type of film that feels more like a chore to labor through than it does entertainment. You can appreciate what O'Leary set out to achieve, but not everyone who has a passion for the genre has a talent for moviemaking.

brain damage films have done some interesting takes on the vampire story. blood sisters was one this si another. this darkness is not a great film, not brain damage best but its worth watchin. the scientific parts are a bit hard to grasp if you dont have a science background but its interesting how this guy accidentaly became a mad scientist. apparently his dna experiments went awire and resulted in mutated humans that are similair to vamps. more sci fi than horror. check it out